Chapter 10 of Title 36 of the United States Code recommends American flag display only from sunrise to sunset. However, it also states that American flags “may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if properly illuminated during hours of darkness”. Flags, particularly national flags and team or school flags, represent a source of pride to those who display them. University flags are frequently quite prominently exhibited on vehicles traveling to and from major sporting events of the school. It is fair to assume that if school flags could be easily and inexpensively lit up after dark, many would opt for the added feature.
Pole-mounted flags present a not-insignificant problem of atmospheric light pollution when the flag is on a tall pole or flagstaff and one or more spotlights at ground level are focused on the flag area surrounding 360 degrees at the top of the pole. According to the International Dark-Sky Association, over one billion dollars is wasted annually to generate light that does nothing more than light up the sky unnecessarily, and create problems while doing so. It is estimated that almost one third of the light created out-of-doors escapes into the night sky where, instead of providing useful illumination, it causes glare, sky glow and other types of light pollution. According to the Dark-Sky Association, about 2,500 individual stars should normally be visible on a clear night in an unpolluted sky, but in a typical suburb, only 200 to 300 may be visible. In a city, fewer than a dozen stars may shine through an artificially lit sky.
While the most common causes of light pollution are street lights, security lights, billboards lit from below, landscape illumination directed upwardly, businesses like convenience stores and gas stations that operate under extremely high levels of illumination, spot lights trained on night-lit flags also contribute to some extent to the overall problem. To combat this, many municipalities and communities, especially those in areas of research observatories, have responded to the urging of astronomers and have enacted ordinances for the regulation of night lighting. Additionally, at the request of wildlife environmental groups, some of Florida's oceanfront communities have adopted lighting codes to protect nesting sea turtles along beaches. These and other problems were taken into account in the development of the present invention. It will be seen that not only does my invention make it easier for people to display the national flag both day and night, but it does so at smaller cost, less bother and greater overall energy savings than comparable flag illumination in the past.